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I had this art teacher who was absolutely fantastic
and she just changed my life absolutely
she was really supportive and helpful and actually made me want to be an art
teacher that was like my dream when I was growing up
I had no ambitions actually be an artist I just wanted to be an art teacher
because I wanted to be like her
when I first started freelancing and I just had a
no money I mean I was just I was working in a cafe I was making maybe
six dollars an hour and I remember I ran out of paper and I had to use
paper bags to draw on I ended up actually using
the art to apply for a scholarship
and I actually got it and when I showed it to them they were like
oh so what was your conceptual choice behind choosing the paper bags and I said
well I was just really broke and I had no paper and they were like oh
okay so I wanted to run a residency program since I was in SUNY Purchase
my undergrad program ten years ago I was doing different
community art related projects and
setting up art shows in alternative spaces
and setting up shows with artists who don't always have a chance to show in
the traditional art models
and who are you know maybe outside the gallery scene or outside of the museum
scene certainly and
so we which set up spaces in people studios we would have shows
I've done shows in basements of theaters and just kinda whatever space is open
I've just always been interested in making art
opportunities for people that are outside of
traditional and already established venues
so it's always been really inspiring for me to create
new opportunities for people so I had mentioned to a friend
that I was looking to start a residency program and she said oh my friend Piper is
looking for someone to start a residency program with too and she lives upstate and
its on this beautiful farm and
when I came out to meet her she said well I'm looking for someone to run the
residency and I said well I'm looking for a residency to run and it was just
so easy
that it just it just happened and then after that moment everything started
building
really seamlessly for for both of us because we're both committed to doing this
I previously explored the parts of art
that separated people from each other and the
conservation aspect which was just very technical and very
removed from the actual people making arts a lot it was historical a lot of it
was
very reverential and I appreciated that there's something
that arrives when you
can be sounding boards to each other
when there's a sense for a dialogue
that captures something that doesn't exist within one person
specifically that one person if
they are making that element it will be speaking of and to them
but then something in between
the doer and the receiver
gets captured when you're doing something together
I think art as a role is such a powerful force
for bringing together one-time I was living in Cleveland
and friends came to visit and there was the festival going on where people are
having a street art
setup where you could just grab a piece in border a piece of paper and
they had the paints
there and they were ready to go and it was just such an amazing
way to meet my neighbors it was an amazing
way to
to get my creative
excitement and energy out there and to share that with my friend
as her first introduction to the city i was like oh this is amazing
I need that make sure that wherever I live in the future
I want something like that in Freehold art exchange
artists can come and it's an exchange with the community as well as an
exchange
between artists here you can do a certain amount of
time working and that'll then allow you to have so much time in the studio
with access to all of our space there's a lot that we
think of in terms stepping outside of the monetary
world that we live in and let it go back to the bartering system
there's something wonderful about arts
that can bring people together so wonderfully
when people are here it's an electric space